William Myers, Jr. was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in February 1926. During the Great Depression his father worked for the Public Belt Railroad [Annotator's Note: New Orleans Public Belt Railroad]; his mother was a homemaker. His household was large and multi-generational, and those who could get a job worked, the others kept the family going. Myers was in eighth grade when the war started, attending a school that had a Navy ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps], which he credits with his interest in and determination to belong to that branch of service. The family knew a man who worked in the circulation department of the local newspaper, and on 7 December 1941 that man asked Myers and several of his friends to help distribute an extra edition. The headlines read, "Japanese Bomb Pearl Harbor." Myers remembers walking down the street yelling, "Extra! Extra!" For some people, the newspaper was their only source of news, and, Myers said, there was another extra edition every week afterward to announce the progress of the American response. He was only 15, but Myers knew what was going on. He said everyone geared up for the war, and friends and relatives enlisted. Myers tells the story of one of his cousins who was on board the USS Indianapolis (CA-35) when it transported the atomic bomb to Tinian, and was lost when that ship went down at Guadalcanal. Myers' father signed for him to join in 1944, for the duration of the war plus six months, in January of his senior year of high school, when he was 17. Myers was sent to San Diego, for five weeks basic training then went aboard the USS Wasp (CV-18) for maneuvers. His battle station was at a five inch gun on the carrier, where he wore long gloves and caught spent shells to throw them into a net. Myers didn't feel he had been adequately trained for the job, and when he arrived at Pearl Harbor, he volunteered for sub duty.

William Myers, Jr. described submarine school at Pearl Harbor as good and not good; he hated training in the pressure tank. It frightened him to suit up and practice gradually surfacing on a rope. But he liked his work when he wasn't training. The Navy learned that Myers could operate a typewriter, and he started working in an office where his performance earned him a change in position to Yeoman. He worked hard, and was promoted from night shift to day shift. The situation was at the command post for the whole Pacific submarine fleet, which controlled every sub's personnel, training, and schedules for refueling and Rest & Recreation. Life in Hawaii at the time wasn't very active or exciting. There was little to do. A sailor could go for a meal on shore, attend a movie once in a while, or sit on the beach at Royal Hawaiian. When the fleet was in, Honolulu got so crowded with sailors that any pastime meant standing in a long line. Although he acknowledges that the food on the subs was the best in the Navy, Myers liked to go into Honolulu when the ships weren't in to get something different to eat. Myers said one of his jobs was keeping track of subs that were lost, and noted that the numbers were less than one would think. Since we didn't have to invade Japan the Americans lost a few along coast there.

After training and before being assigned to a submarine, William Myers, Jr. was part of a relief crew. His job was in communications dealing with the officers, and running messages back and forth to the base. He remembers the day they brought in President George Herbert Walker Bush. Myers drove officers in the jeep that went to meet the pilots. He didn't know who they were going to welcome until after the war. Generally, Myers said, when a victorious sub came in, the crew would hang a broom on the periscope. That meant that the sub had been successful in sinking ships; had made a "clean sweep." Myers was ready to go out on a war patrol. Although he didn't yet have the required rank, the captain thought he could do the job. Because he had inside information from the office, he knew they would be heading for one of two places: Okinawa, or to the coast of China to pick up B-25 pilots who had to ditch because they couldn't get back to friendly air space. Unexpectedly, the tour was cancelled, and Myers headed back to the executive offices at the sub base at Pearl. Myers thinks it was because they dropped the first a-bomb and they were no longer planning to continue bombing Japan with incendiaries, so there was no need to send the subs out. After the second atomic bomb, Japan was asking for peace. The Navy sent a sub-tender to decommission the Japanese sub base, and make sure that all Japanese sailors and marines were disarmed. When the ship carrying those weapons came in to Pearl Harbor, Myers' commanding officer allowed his crew aboard to choose a souvenir from among the guns, rifles and swords. Myers chose a Japanese Marine rifle. The war was over.

William Myers, Jr. said quarters aboard a submarine were cramped, but because he was a yeoman, his bunk was right above his desk. As a yeoman, he was primarily occupied with relaying messages between positions on the submarine. Myers believes he learned of the war's end through the communications system, and remembers how happy everybody was at hearing the news. There was a grand celebration in the square on the base, with a band and beer. It was a real party. Myers knows he was lucky in many ways, including being exempt from work in commissary because he was made a yeoman so soon. He stayed in Hawaii until May 1946, without ever having a day's leave or seeing his family, since the time he enlisted. Immediately after V-J Day [Annotator's Note: Victory Over Japan Day, 15 August 1945], the Navy started decommissioning, beginning with the submarine base at Midway. Myers' first duty after war's end was to help return sailors with enough points to the United States for discharge. He devised an efficient system whereby each sailor calculated his own points and filled out mimeographed paperwork, warning the men that if they "fudged," they would be caught and sent back. Myers was gratified that they didn't find one error.

William Myers, Jr. used any available ship to send sailors home. He did such a good job, his captain wanted to write him up for a commendation; Myers said what he really wanted, since he had never had a leave in all the time he was in service, was a chance to go home. Next day, the captain told him to put in his orders for leave over the Christmas holidays. After agreeing that he would go back to Hawaii to finish his time, he sailed away on a sea plane tender, the USS Fulton (AS-11). His father and mother met him at the train station and Myers said it was the happiest day of his life. He had to tell them the story of the Japanese rifle in his sea bag, and when he got home, the rest of his family was waiting for him with a spread on the table of all the foods he liked. After a temporary stint at the local post office, Myers was on his way back to Hawaii. The ship he was on encountered a squall, and for the first time, and right at the end of his Navy career, Myers was seasick. In May 1946, Myers took a train to New Orleans, and was processed for discharge at Camp Leroy Johnson.

William Myers, Jr. went to Tulane night school on the G.I. Bill, and said he couldn't have otherwise afforded his higher education. He got married, worked in civil service, and eventually ended up with the Veterans' Administration in the mortgage guarantee program. Myers said he is grateful for the G.I. Bill's program for home ownership, which he not only administered, but took advantage of himself. He was also instrumental in forming the American Legion post in his area. Meyers said he got more out of being in the service than if he had gone straight to college. He learned independence and decision-making techniques, as well as leadership skills. He feels it very important for institutions like The National WWII Museum to teach the nation about the events of the war, and thanked the interviewer for what the museum is doing.